What Is Your Support Workflow?

Everyone has their own style. Although some people use boilerplate, it's frowned upon by many people as it doesn't always answer the specific question.

I have a few websites that don't come up easily in a search book marked. Most references will come up fairly quickly in a web search (hint: Google lets you restrict searches to a domain by typing domain:apple.com search term) But, beyond that, there's nothing special about what I do. Like many people who've been around a while, I have my areas of expertise and can generally answer those questions without references. Sometimes, a question interests me and I research it a bit.

I think the most important thing that I do here, though, is learn from other people. I read a lot of posts that I don't answer. I flag ones that interest me that I don't know the answers to and follow the discussions. I'd say I answer one question for every twenty I read, if that. Also, don't get too hung up on points. If you do this for any other reason than that you enjoy it, you'll probably get frustrated.

Best of luck.

• get email notifications of forums to which I feel I can contribute by Following that forum
• decide from the email whether it is something with which I can help
• choose the title or link at the bottom of the email to jump directly to the post

• I have a few browser bookmarks (I used to have a LOT), but find that it is quicker to open a new TAB and start typing remembered keywords = the article or thread title will show up as suggestions (History AND Bookmarks) in the location bar list
• Apple articles, forum names, ASC threads and ASC User Tips "auto-title" when you paste the URL
• You automatically Follow any thread in which you participate, so you will get notices for them too - even if they get moved to another forum

See this Site map of Communities and Categories for some insight into my approach. I use this Following Discussions link most so I don't miss follow up questions on threads where I've already got involved (no email for me) and then use browser bookmarks to visit the areas where I like to help.

tt2

I first always try to catch up with threads I am involved in; when done with that, I go to the forums I have bookmarked (which I feel I know enough about to actually answer a question or at least help) and browse the list of subjects/questions. I generally do not add anything to a thread which already has one or more to-the-point answers unless I feel there is another important point which hasn't been made - otherwise it just clutters up the flow with irrelevant and/or repetitive posts (also known as points chasing).

I have a rather lengthy alphabetised word document which contains links to Apple knowledge articles which I will link to frequently - however, I never use "boiler plate". I also read quite a few discussions without replying simply to learn from it (or possibly adding a question).

All in all, I am amazed at the breadth of knowledge by the "regulars"; however, I have somewhat reduced my participation because of the new iteration of these forums (mostly too much white space/eye strain for me). FWIW, I co not use email notifications for two reasons: too many emails to delete and my online email provider actually has bandwidth limits which I managed to exceed several times.

You're welcome - and WELCOME to the gang!

I have over 200 boilerplate documents. They are html documents which I edit with SeaMonkey. I try to write an individual prefix then copy in the common stuff.

I find the some question repeats itself by differ people for several weeks then disappears. Why type the some thing more than once? I try to improve the boilerplate stuff over time.

I do not use email replies. I have the discussions I follow bookmarked in Firefox. I do not use apple bookmarks. I avoid using any of the fancy ASC stuff.

Here is my user tip on how to use ASC

How to improve your experience with Apple Support Communities ( ASC )

Here is a user tip on adjusting ASC for a more friendly experience.

Adjust the format and layout of ASC Web Pages

I use boilerplate a from time to time, but mine are so brilliantly written, it makes sense to use them. 😁 I just wanted to throw that out there. I am just kidding here.... 🙂

Seriously though, I do a few that I bring out from time to time simply because it is so much easier than typing the same 6 lines of text for the same old issue every time that I want to answer. I think the use of boilerplates is more effective depending on the forums that you frequent. I lurk in the iOS forums and many of the same questions come up every day and it is just easier to copy and paste from a document that I have easy access to, especially since split screen multitasking made it so easy to use on my iPad Air 2 on which I spend most of my time.

The other members here are too polite to say this, but there are a few carpet bombing helpers that post long winded boilerplates time after time and sometimes the boilerplates don't even fit the situation. That becomes tiresome after a while to see that behavior over and over again.

The site map that turingtest2 set up is also one of my bookmarked sites and it has made my participation here much easier and my workflow go much more smoothly.

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tt2

Sorry, thanks for the heads up.

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

Demo wrote:

The other members here are too polite to say this, but there are a few carpet bombing helpers that post long winded boilerplates time after time and sometimes the boilerplates don't even fit the situation. That becomes tiresome after a while to see that behavior over and over again.

You stated that far better than I did. I'm not opposed to boilerplate in theory (and have a few replies saved in TextExpander) but, they either have to be as brilliant as yours or just used very judiciously so that one doesn't come across as a bot.

TheOnlyCyberWizard wrote:

Not to go too off-topic, but I've noticed this sentiment a bit. As a user who has searched for answers through Google and been brought here that way for multiple issues, I actually very much prefer this look. Makes it feel less like a generic forum and more like a true tech support area, and with helpful/solved posts sticking to the top you get some great answers without having to dig unless you want to. Sure, there some outliers of iffy helpful or solved choices, but for the most part it's knowledgable posts with good links from a trusted source of some sort (Apple article or higher-level users like yourselves). Just my two cents on the matter.

It's interesting to hear that perspective. I believe, in fact, it was what the powers that be were going for. I was certainly not happy with aspects of the change but have adjusted to most of them. And, if it means that more people will find this a welcoming, useful place, all to the good.